dono

Forms

dono m (plural donos, feminine dona, feminine plural donas, metaphonic)^[1] Houaiss records donu in 1047, dono in 1269 and donno in the 14th century.^[2] A hypercorrect dopnos appears in 1416–1422.^[3] The feminine is dona; the plural donos keeps the closed /o/, while the feminine has the open vowel.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin domnus, the syncopated form of dominus (“master of a house, owner, lord”), written Old Galician-Portuguese dono in the oldest texts.^[2][1][4] The /mn/ was assimilated to /nn/ and the double consonant then simplified.^[4] Nascentes notes that the short form is already found in Plautus and in Augustine.^[5] The Latin word is derived from domus (“house”);^[6][1] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic adjective meaning “of the house”, and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dṓm (“house”).^[6][1] The title dom is a short form of the same Latin word.^[2][7]

The same Latin word is Galician dono, Spanish dueño, Italian donno and Romanian domn.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters have the Romance noun from the 11th century: 1047 qui era donu de tercia de ipsa eglesia “who was owner of a third of the church”, and 1152 det a suo dono.^[3] The first Portuguese text Lorenzo quotes is a document of Portel of 1262, e dobre quanto filhar a seu dono “and let him pay double what he takes to its owner”.^[3] The first sense is “owner”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the cantigas and the chronicles the word means the owner of a thing or an animal: a horse sem dono, and in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a man taken out seu dono “by his master”.^[3][9] Bluteau (1712) records that in Entre Douro e Minho dono meant “grandfather”, and Morais (1789) that children called their parents so in some provinces.^[10][11] The grandparent sense lives on in Cape Verde and in Kabuverdianu donu.^[2][12][1]

Modern senses add the person in control of something and the head of a household, and in Portugal a husband.^[2] Brazilian religions of African origin have the dono da cabeça, the personal orisha of each believer.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 1047 – donu in a Latin charter.^[3][2]
• 1152 – det a suo dono in a Latin text.^[3]
• 1262 – a seu dono in a document of Portel.^[3]
• 1269 – the spelling dono.^[2]
• 14th century – the spelling donno.^[2]
• c. 1450 – the Livro das tres vertudes is the first text of the CTA corpus with the word.^[14]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it senhor and Latin dominus.^[15]
• 1712 – Bluteau records the sense “grandfather” in Entre Douro e Minho.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. owner, proprietor: o dono do restaurante.^[2][16][1]
2. One who has control over something: ser dono da situação.^[2][12]
3. The head of a household.^[2][13][1]
4. (Portugal) A husband.^[2]
5. (Cape Verde) A grandparent.^[2][12]
6. (historical, term of address) Master, as a slave addressed his owner.^[1]

Related words

• dom
• dominar
• domínio
• dona
• Latin dominus
• Spanish dueño

Usage notes

Fixed phrases: dono da bola, a player who keeps the ball to himself and, figuratively, someone who takes over a task;^[17] dono da verdade, someone who thinks he is always right;^[17] ser dono do seu nariz, to depend on no one.^[2][17] Bluteau records proverbs such as qual é o cão, tal é o dono “like dog, like master”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dono
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. dono
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dono
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 163
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. dominus
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2741
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. dono
10. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dono
11. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 454
12. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. dono
13. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. dono
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. dono
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dono
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. dono
17. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3266